


zuko’s nightmares

by satyrnskies



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Flirty, Fluff, Love, M/M, Romance, Zukka fluff, mention of ozai’s punk ass, mlm, my boys - Freeform, protective sokka, real sad shit, they’re both so traumatized, zukka - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satyrnskies/pseuds/satyrnskies
Summary: healing takes a lot of time, and a little bit of sokka.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 179





	zuko’s nightmares

sokka loved his sleep. there were very few people in the world for whom he would sacrifice those wonderful hours of unconsciousness, and only one he would do just that for every single night for the rest of his life, if necessary.

in the beginning, right after the war, nightmares had plagued zuko relentlessly. he’d wake up thrashing, begging for mercy from an invisible antagonist who offered none. sometimes sparks would shoot from his hands, at times escalating to fully realized flames. they had gone through a handful of beds throughout the past decade, each more charred than the last. sokka had been burned more than once, much to zuko’s distress, but it really was no big deal to him. 

he would be there every time, faithfully.

as the years passed, and his husband sought help for the turmoil in his mind, the nightmares slowed. they came less frequently, and were less vivid, allowing zuko to actually rest for the first time in his life. every once in a while, however, sokka’s beloved would slip back into that dreamscape pit of despair, inconsolable. 

that evening was one of those times.

sokka knew zuko would have a rough night before he even laid down; the young firelord was jittery, his eyes a million miles away as his husband kissed him goodnight. evidently zuko had the same inkling, turning away from sokka instead of curling into him like usual. though this hurt his feelings, the water tribesman knew this was his lovers way of keeping him safe. out of the line of fire.

laying flat on his back, sokka tuned his ears into zuko’s breathing. after a few minutes it slowed, letting him know that the firebender had finally succumbed to his weariness. sitting up, sokka took a turn about the room, trying to stay awake should the nightmares make an appearance. he became very interested in a little gadget on their dresser, a geared up thing he had never seen before.

as he tinkered with it, he heard the familiar hitching of his husbands breath, prefacing a guttural and inhuman scream that ripped through sokka’s chest. 

barely visible in the dim moonlight, zuko tore at the blankets, his eyes closed in wild disorientation and his dark hair stuck to his forehead in a sweaty curtain. “no- p-please!” zuko’s voice was pure anguish, the sight of his twisted body sending shockwaves through sokka’s nervous system. “please! i c-can’t take it!” 

sokka was at his side in an instant, desperately searching for a way to wake zuko without making things worse. he knew better than to touch him, but he couldn’t very well scream him awake either. it had been months since his last nightmare, and years since he had one as bad as this. it unnerved sokka, who felt completely helpless watching the love of his life fight so hard against his own mind.

zuko clawed at the scarred side of his face, raking his nails into his skin so hard blood began to bead in the tracks he left. sokka simply could not let it continue. if he ended up burned again, so be it. the scars didn’t bother him, not like seeing zuko this way did. 

“-your l-loyal son!” the firelord choked out, clutching at the blankets so hard they nearly ripped. sokka bit down on the inside of his cheek, saying a silent prayer to yue above them that he didn’t traumatize his husband further.

“zuko,” he murmured, trying to pour every ounce of adoration he had into his lovers name. “wake up, you’re okay. wake up, zuko.” he placed his large hands on either side of his shoulders, offering a slight shake. 

though his eyes were open now, it was very obvious that the glassy orbs were unseeing. zuko strained against sokka’s touch, fighting him off with none of the precision the swordsman had in conscious combat. he was no all powerful firelord in that moment- he was a scared, abused little boy, tormented by his imprisoned father even after a decade of no contact. 

“zuko!” sokka exclaimed, louder this time. panic was overtaking him. he hated to be so brisk, but he needed to get his husband awake and calmed immediately. all this stress couldn’t be good on him. “it’s me, sokka! please, please wake up!”

taking both his hands in his, sokka flinched when he felt zuko’s palms heat up, lacing their fingers regardless and preparing for the worst. “zuko,” he tried one last time, squeezing their intwined hands and pressing them into the bed, forcing zuko’s thrashing to ease. “please, my love, wake up for me. you’re safe, you’re okay, you’re safe.” his affirmations were loud, though they still carried the gentle kindness from earlier. 

finally, zuko began to wake up, his chest heaving with hyperventilated breaths and his face wildly confused. “s-sokka?” he croaked, his voice two inches from a whisper. nodding, the water tribesman ran his hands up and down his husband’s sweaty arms, waiting for his breathing to slow. “it’s okay, just a bad nightmare. i’m here now.” 

golden eyes flickered across sokka’s torso in worry, searching for a new mark of his own doing. “did i...?” 

shaking his head, sokka cracked a smile, rotating to give zuko a full 360 view. “no sokka kebabs tonight.”

zuko didn’t find it funny, running his hand over a particularly atrocious burn mark on his husbands arm, the raised skin there making shame blossom all over his body. he sat up, leaning back against the headboard. “i’m so sorry, sokka.” with that, he broke into uninhibited sobs.

panic rising in his chest again, sokka climbed completely onto the bed and sat beside zuko, wrapping his arm around the mans shoulders with gentle strength. though he didn’t know what exactly had brought on the sudden fit of crying, he had a vague idea. rage flared in his stomach as he pictured barging into ozai’s cell the next day and tearing him limb from limb, still too good a punishment for the abuse he inflicted on zuko. 

to his horrification, when his lover moved his hand, sokka saw that his tears were mixing with the blood beneath his scarred eye, forming a watery red paste across his handsome face that was extremely nauseating. quickly going into the adjacent bathroom to wet a cloth, sokka practically sprinted back to clean his lovers face. 

“let me see,” he ordered quietly, sighing in relief when zuko finally turned to face him with blotchy eyes. “i’m so sorry,” he reiterated, his hot hands coming to rest on sokka’s legs as the man brough the warm cloth across his face. “i’m so sorry.”

“sorry for what?” sokka scoffed, gently cleaning the ridges of his scar. he genuinely didn’t know the answer to his own question. it wasn’t like zuko was the only one packing baggage. the nights that sokka awoke calling for his mother, or spent staring out at the moon with that ancient look of pain and guilt on his face, zuko was always there. the love that the young firebender gave to sokka on a day to day basis was more than enough for him. 

they took care of eachother, he and zuko. 

silence followed for a few heartbeats. “i could have hurt you.”

“but you didn’t, you hurt yourself, let’s worry about that right now.”

sokka set the cloth on the nightstand, leaning forward to pepper kisses across the marred skin of his face. the feeling finally brought a smile to the firelord’s sullen face. muscular arms wrapped around sokka, and the two young men fell back into the pillows, intwined. 

“i’m fucked up for life, aren’t i.”

it wasn’t a question, it was a declaration. sokka nodded in response, resting his head on zuko’s and running his fingertips across his back. “yeah,” he whispered, kissing the mans scarred temple. “but you carry it well.”

there was no point in satiating him with false promises and sugary words. zuko was fucked for life. so was sokka, and katara and aang and whoever else had been impacted by the war, by ozai himself. it would get better, he knew, but it would never go away. zuko knew that just as well as he did.

when his husband didn’t respond, sokka adjusted himself to get a better look at him, smoothing his long dark hair away from his somber face. “you’ve got me for life, too. so you’re kind of double fucked.” 

finally, zuko’s husky laugh filled the room. “double or nothing,” he joked back, pressing a firm kiss to sokka’s lips. the water tribesman melted beneath it, his large hands coming up to cup zuko’s angular face. 

suddenly needy, the firelord pressed sokka back into the pillows, relishing in the realness of his touch. instantly reacting, the blue eyed man pulled zuko onto him, relieved that his husband had finally calmed down. his touches were hesitant, but when they pressed into eachother all inhibitions fell away. 

after a few moments spent tangled together, sokka felt a wetness on his cheeks and pulled back, finding a tear stained zuko. “what is it?” he asked immediately, sitting up and looking around the room frantically. zuko shook his head, running his hand through sokka’s loose hair. “i just...” blue eyes met gold, held for a moment in an electricity filled gaze. “you just make everything better.”

his words made sokka smile, leaning forward to kiss the man before him once more. “you’re my everything, zuko.”

“you’re more than that, for me.”

chuckling, the men fell into eachother again, their chaste kisses soon turning hungry beneath the moonlight. “i don’t want to go back to sleep,” zuko breathed, his rough hands toying with the hem of sokka’s pants. the water tribesman shrugged, glancing down at his lovers nimble fingers. “you don’t have to,” he affirmed. “there are better things for us to do.”

yes, sokka loved his sleep, but he loved zuko infinitely more.

**Author's Note:**

> hi! if you liked this, please check out my other fics! mainly atla one shots :) i cherish and love every single reader, kudos, and comment to the fullest extent! 💞 if you have any suggestions or ideas you would like to see written out, please let me know!


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